Written by
A TripAdvisor™ TripWow slideshow of a travel blog to Handan, China by TravelPod blogger Livewireshock titled “Wandering through a steel mill” Livewireshock’s travel blog entry: “What to do today? Well I actually made a request at the start of my visit that my hosts thought was strange indeed. I wanted to visit the local steel mill. Why you may ask? Because as recently as 2005/2006 steam engines were still working here and I was wondering is any had survived to see 2008. Alas it was not to be. After catching a taxi to the start of the steel mill, we proceeded to walk in on foot along an internal road. This place was huge. There is even a hotel located with in the steel mill however I would not recommend staying there with all the noise and pollution around. There were several small parks and gardens all while being surrounded by filthy gantries and overhead piping. It was an interesting mix. One sight I had to laugh at was of two old women whose job was to sweep the street by hand in one of the dirtiest places I think I have ever been. A more frustrating and futile task would be hard to find. We wandered about, making our own way across the mill. No real idea of which way we were heading but it was fun. There was an obvious factory tour being conducted in three white coaches but I liked the way we were walking around as we were. We came up to the main railway yard in front of the blast furnaces. My hopes of seeing steam engines was dashed when I saw the diesel electrics …
